August Life

So my husband took his Border Patrol exam 8/16 and on 8/23 he got his results. He passed!!! He got a total score of 102. Now we wait... The order of events is long and frustrating but I am confident he can get it done. We are waiting for a "tentative offer" which is when you send in all your paperwork, then you will be scheduled for physicals, fitness, and boards. I am excited to see how quick we get through this process and move on.

On another note, my daughter is now in a 2 day pre school program and she LOVES it. She loves that she learns new songs and letters with her friends. They even have a "kids gym" with little treadmills and ellipticals and everything else you can think of. I am so glad we decided to place her in that program.

Our journey this far....

So my husband tested for his Border Patrol written exam on August 16th. There is a wait from 2-10 weeks to get your results back so.....now we wait. We have to wait and see what his score is. If he scored above a 70 then we will move on to the next round of interviews and test, if he did not then its back to the drawing board. I am confident that he did his best and he passed. The wait is killing me, I wish they would tell you the score that day. Looking at the job market out there is not pretty. We have friends that are still trying to find jobs in the civilian world and it is not looking good.
Now that being said, Would I want my husband to re-enlist in the Army???? The answer to that is NO WAY IN HELL. With all the talk about what is going on now in Iran  I am glad that my husband and I are taking the route to leave the army.. I understand that they are pulling soldiers out of Iraq BUT some of them are turning around and going to Afganistan and one day soon will probably be going to Iran. I would not want my husband over there with all the nuclear weapons that Iran has.
I hope life starts to look up and the Border Patrol process goes on smoothly.

Things are looking up

So my husband and I had been thing about what career he was going to transition to when he got out of the military. We discussed California Highway Patrol(CHP), Border Patrol(BP), and Texas State Trooper(DPS). All of these departments are on a hiring freeze due to the economy so we had to look at other options. We were on the path of going for Federal Prison Guard at a Maximum Security prison. I was not really liking this idea since it is very dangerous to go and be guarding murderers on life sentences. So anyhow I was learning to deal with this idea since it was the only place that was hiring in law enforcement at the time. 

Well last night I got a call from a friend of ours who is currently a BP agent. He told me that they were hiring for a limited time. I went online and did the application for my husband and got him scheduled to take the written exam.  Her and her husband have been looking out for when hiring is open since this was my husbands 1st choice as a career out of the military! I am so thankful for friends that look out for us and are going to be there for us into this transition. 

If anyones husband is looking for transitioning from military to civilian life and want to go BP here are a few military perks. 

If you are prior military you can claim veteran eligibility for 5 points 

If you have a purple heart or will claim disability you can claim for 10 points. 

These points will go towards your oral board which you will need to get a total of 100 points to be hired and go to the next phase. So you will have a 15 point advantage off the bat. 

So now I have to help me husband study what he needs to take this written exam so that we can have a career path to follow with excellent benefits and income!

 
FOR GOD A THANKFUL PRAYER 
A THANKFUL PRAYER JUST BECAUSE... THANK YOU GOD FOR BEING ALWAYS NEXT TO US. 
 

Today is a special day. Today I feel connected to my source. Today I feel that I am a step closer to what I should and will become. No need to ask for favors, for I know everything comes when the timing is perfect. TODAY, LET US THANK GOD TOGETHER!

Thank you God for giving me another day, another chance to become a better individual, another chance to give and experience love. Thank you God for giving me health, for the food you provide, for the awareness you have awaken in me...Thank you for the energy that feeds my soul, the sun that warms our bodies and the air that fills our lungs... Because of you I believe in the good without the bad and the ugly, because of you I am learning to love and accept myself, because of you I believe in believing. My source, stay connected to me today and always, for I need you in order to fullfil my spiritual tasks...God, show me how to love myself, to be able to love others. Help me become the type of person that I would like to befriend, help me forgive myself and forgive others... God, make me a channel of your energy and help me understand. I thank you God for giving me another day, another unused opportunity to do it right. Keep us all close to you and listen to our prayers.Amen. 

7 months and counting........

So today July 16,2010 is exactly 7 months from my husbands Expiration Term of Service (ETS) date from the Army. There is still SO much we need to do and it feels like we do not have enough time to do it. I like to think that everything will work itself out but I am not sure I believe that in this case. The economy is not that great right now and jobs are hard to come by. So that makes me ask myself: Is this the right choice for my family? I mean I know it will be good for my children since my husband will be "IN COUNTRY" all of their lives from here on out and he will not have to miss anything but at the same time its been 10 years and this is all he knows........

So now I sit here and think about what I need to get done before we get out and a lot of things come to mind... I need to see what career path my husband wants to take. As of now he wants to be something in law enforcement, now the problem with that is with this economy there is a freeze on most law enforcement hiring. So he wants to try to get into the prisons as a guard in California so that is what I am going off of now. So now the question is where to live? Should we buy a house or should we rent? We have 3 vehicles so... should we sell two and keep one, should we sell one and keep two or do we keep all three?? Another question is do I go back to work in a "traditional" job or do I stay home with my kids as I have been for the past year and a half well by that time it will be two years? Now if I go back to work will i put my kids in an at home daycare or a traditional daycare? I am not sure about any of these things...but I do know that time will creep up on me and it will be here before you know it...
With the army the soldier is suppose to be able to take terminal leave which is 60 days early, if this is the case then we would only have 5 months til we have to move...

I will be finding out all the information I can to make this transition easier and see what decisions I make a long the way. I hope this is easier than the headache I am giving myself.

Laundry... I HATE it!

Who hates laundry more than I? No one. The laundry gods hate me. It seems like my whole day EVERYDAY consist of doing laundry. I am either washing, drying, folding, hanging, sorting or something.
I really hate to do laundry. As a matter of fact, I have been known to buy undergarments just so I don't have to do more laundry. I know, it is a little bit embarrassing, but I bet many of you have done the same thing.

I hate laundry. It never ends. Even if a miracle occurred and I finished all the laundry in the house, someone would walk in covered with mud and grass stains, strip off their clothes and toss them in the hamper, thereby creating a new load of laundry to do.

I have not seen the bottom of my hamper since the day I bought it. I don’t even know if it has a bottom. For all I know, it could be a huge tunnel of laundry going clear to the center of the earth, never ending, always half full of smelly socks and mustard stained t-shirts. At least, I hope that’s mustard.

There was a time that I didn’t care about laundry. When I was little, laundry was easy—I didn’t do it. One day I was wearing my last pair of clean underwear, and that afternoon the laundry fairy (also known as mom) magically placed a week’s worth of clean underwear in my drawer. In terms of laundry, this was the best time of my life.

Then I grew up.

But even then, I didn’t notice how much laundry I had. I lived with my parents until I got married so my mom would do my laundry and have it folded and all I needed to do was put it in its place, so she was the laundry fairy.

Then one day, the laundry fairy went on strike, so I had a cleaning lady that would come and do my laundry for me and again all I had to do was put it in its place.

Then I got married. And I entered the “don’t touch my hand washables” phase. In our house, My husband did the laundry once and we ended up with pastel pink clothes. I mean come on, who does not know that you need to keep the reds and whites away from each other?

Of course, even though married laundry involves twice as much washing as single laundry, at least you see the bottom of the hamper from time to time. It’s when you have a child that the laundry never ends. Who knew that one tiny little baby who can’t even speak or roll over could produce enough laundry for an army? And not one outfit is bigger than 6 inches, so why does your laundry multiply faster than rabbits in spring?

I think it has to do with the spit up. At the beginning all parents want to change their child 100 times a day either due to the spit up or pooping or something, now thats with your first child, which is why you have the hamper full of laundry.

Anyway, my laundry life has come full circle. It’s pretty apparent that I have become the laundry fairy. I’m kind of disappointed, actually. I mean, the laundry fairy title just kind of stuck to me. There wasn’t any ceremony granting me freshly laundered wings. I didn’t get a magic wand equipped with the power to lift any stain. All I got was a bottle of Shout and some bleach.

I had a dream that one day my husband would be the one doing all the laundry but with his schedule that does not happen. I can say that he has learned and does not mix colors but its still no help. My husband does not wash clothes unless it is his own because he says "I dont know how to wash the kids clothes" I think that is just an excuse so that he does not have to help me. Maybe one day my laundry fairy will come off strike and take over my job. :)

Back to laundry I go! Happy Laundry Days!!!

She will be so sad.....

So my step daughter has been staying with us for about 3 weeks now and next weekend she has to go back to her mom. My 3 year old has come VERY VERY attached to her. She will not do anything without her. It is going to be very hard and very sad for her when she leaves. Its hard for her to understand that she has to go home. What to do??? Maybe I will make it a special day before she leaves and take them both to have a tea party or something so that Gabi can see that she had a good last day with her sister. I think that would make her feel a lot better.
Being a part of a military family where you have to move where they send you is hard when you have step children in another state. It makes me wonder how much more time they will miss together. When we get out of the army in the near future we will also be living in different states... What toll is that going to have on my children? I hope we can make it to where Lexi can visit us as often as possible.

The start of a new journey

Today is the start of a new journey. I have decided to close down a forum that I had running for military wives. You ask why I decided to do this.... Well the reason is that I am not about drama nor do I like being talked about behind my back. There were some things being twisted around and I did not want to deal with it. Also to see that I am no longer going to be an army wife but a veterans wife I decided that I needed to put my time and money elsewhere. I loved that site but it was the best thing for me to do. So now I have decided to focus my time on this blog.

I know there are a lot of us as wives that get scared when we hear the words "I am getting out" come from our soldier. I know I was freaking out when my husband told me those words about 6 months ago. It has taken me some time but I am now okay with the fact that we will be transitioning to civilian life. I think it will be a great experience for my husband and my family. We will be able to have more family time and more "us" time. So now I ask myself what does this all mean?? Well I think it means we will be on a different path and have to face some rough times as we transition but we will be okay. We will have to find regular jobs and have regular medical and dental insurances, we will not be able to go to the PX or Commisary, we will not be able to get discounts at Spencers or theme parks anymore. Is giving all this up worth it??To me... yes it is. I will be happy to have my husband in country for the rest of the kids lives, I will be happy to have my husband around for holidays and special occasions. I think after 10 years the army has come first for too long and it is now time for our children to come first.

So as this transition takes place, lets see how many bumps we hit along the way.